Reflexões (6)

“The party-day party penetrates and controls the state, following to some degree in the footsteps of the totalitarian party. Taking into full consideration the different, and contrasting, systemic context, both types of parties occupy the state and they both live on state resources. However, compared to the totalitarian party, the present-day party clearly lacks of the same control over, and penetration into, society. The present-day party does not share the ´total` integrative function described by Sigmund Neumann (1956), because it aims to control only the state and not the society as well” – Piero Ignazi, Power and the (il)legitimacy of political parties: An unavoidable paradox of contemporary democracy?, Party Politics, 2014, Vol. 2 (2), p. 161